Arthur's Inner Strife
by AmeliaKaitin
Summary: Merlin is exposed in front of everyone by a druid and Merlin makes a run for it. Will Arthur realize how badly he needs Merlin by his side before it is to late? Reveal fic. I do not own Merlin, all credit goes to the BBC
1. Chapter 1

"Seize him"

The words that Merlin had feared for years and there they were. The guards hesitantly headed towards Merlin, hardly believing that the young man they had all grown to know and care for was a sorcerer. They didn't see how Merlin could be evil but the Kings orders had to be obeyed. Merlin watched in horror as the guards advanced, weapons drawn, all with the intention of capturing him. He didn't have time to think about how much Arthur giving him up hurt or how all his other friends simply looked horrified at the idea that he was a sorcerer, he just knew he had to get away. With tears streaming down his cheeks, Merlin ran, too afraid to look back.

Far away in a large cavern, Kilgharrah felt the young warlock crying out. It wasn't a conscious decision made by the warlock to reach out but a cry of fear, helplessness and hurt. The bond that the Great Dragon and the dragonlord shared was a bond of kin. This cry left Kilgharrah thirsting to protect Merlin and an urge to wreak havoc on he who had inflicted this pain on him. Without a second thought, the Great Dragon took to the skies; off to find the young warlock.

Arthur still couldn't believe what he had seen. Merlin, his manservant who was loyal to a fault, who was the clumsiest person in all of Camelot, was a sorcerer and if his display of magic was any indicator, he was a damn powerful one at that. He watched as his guards went to restrain Merlin. He himself was unable to move, even when the sorcerer turned and ran. Arthur just stood where he was, thinking of any way to explain what he had just seen.

* * *

_The unfamiliar man burst into the throne room, a blood red cloak flowing behind him. Arthur expected the man to come up to him and challenge him, but much to his surprise, the man went to Merlin._

"_Emrys, you have failed. The Druids have supported you for years, but you have given us reason to doubt your power, so prove it"_

_Merlin just stood and stared at the man, mouth slightly open but an intense look in his eyes that stopped Arthur from immediately having the old bat taken from the hall._

_Merlin broke the silence that had fallen across the hall._

"_Your people have always supported me, so I will do as you ask if it means your continued support."_

_Arthur gasped. He had been expecting denial or confusion from Merlin, not acceptance. What happened next, Arthur didn't think he would ever be able to comprehend._

_The man threw off his cloak and said quietly but with a force that projected his voice to ever set of ears in the throne room, "There is no time like the present."_

_Before any of the onlookers knew what was happening, there was an intense sorcerers duel between this man and Merlin. As intense and awe (or fear) inspiring as it was, it was short lived. The man had muttered a few unintelligible words, all causing impressive looking bursts of energy to be projected at Merlin. As impressive as they were, Merlin seemed to counter them with ease. Merlin gave Arthur a sad longing look, and without saying a word; Merlin's eyes flashed gold. The man was forced to his knees by an invisible force that he was unable to block or counter. _

"_Very good Emrys, your destiny may still be able to be redeemed."_

"_No, you have ruined it all," Merlin retorted, for once leaving the intruder confused. Without another word, the stranger disappeared. _

_Without knowing how else to react, especially to such public disregard to the laws of Camelot, Arthur said the one thing he knew he shouldn't:_

"_Seize Him"_


	2. Chapter 2

11/20/2012

Merlin ran out of the city, knowing that all of Camelot would be searching for him soon. He wasn't sure where he was going or even what he would do once he got there but he knew that he had to keep moving. Without thought, he came upon the clearing he would call Kilgharrah in and was surprised to find the dragon waiting for him.

"Young Warlock, what happened? Who caused you such pain?"

Without a word Merlin just looked at the dragon and shook his head. The dragon had to surge his clawed foot forward to stop Merlin from collapsing.

Arthur turned to his knights and told them to follow him. While a few of them seemed hesitant to pursue Merlin, even Gwaine, Merlin's closest friend, followed Arthur out of the city and into the woods, chasing a friend.

The knights easily found Merlin's trail; seeing how he had been given no time to cover it. Then everyone, even Arthur stopped dead in their tracks as they approached a large clearing that could barely accommodate its current inhabitant, a dragon.

Kilgharrah heard the knights' approach and was instantly filled with the need to avenge whatever pain had been afflicted upon the young warlock.

The Dragon turned his great head to face the knights, and much to their surprise, he spoke.

"I would not come closer if I were you. Whichever one of you did this to the young Merlin is no friend of mine. I was once convinced by the young warlock to forgive you, Arthur Pendragon, for the sins of your father, but inflicting as much pains as I felt coming from Merlin, is something I may never be able to forgive. He is as close to having kin as I will ever get and he needs time to heal. So I will ask, who did this?"

Stunned, all the knights slowly turned to face Arthur. Arthur spoke up, knowing now that he should have never tried to capture Merlin, but still so filled with rage and shock that his words were tainted with malice and malcontent.

"That man you are protecting broke the laws of Camelot, we pursued, that is all. The only harm done was self inflicted." Arthur, hearing the falsehoods in his own words, suddenly grew wary of the Great Dragons reaction.

"Merlin was afraid, for years, of telling you the truth, and you made his worst fears come true, young Pendragon, now, you must feel the consequences of betraying Camelot's biggest ally. You may only be able to gain back the young warlocks trust if you are completely able to accept who he is, and find out what he has done for you."

With that, the Great Dragon took off, holding an unconscious merlin in his grasp. As Kilgharrah flew away, he turned to see a group of dumbfounded knights, all feeling as if it had been them who had committed treason.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi everyone! You guys read! And liked! Honestly, I didn't think people would even read so that they did is beyond exciting. Hope you enjoy this next chapter!**

**-Amelia**

* * *

The march back to city was filled with nothing but silence. Not one knight wanting to be the first to recap what had just happened. The guilt they all felt was trying to suppress the memory of what the Great Dragon had said. When they were only 5 minutes out from the City, it was Gwaine who broke the eerie silence:

"I guess you didn't kill the Great Dragon after all, eh princess?

"No Gwaine, and something tells me Merlin had something to do with it."

After Arthurs brief and bitter retort, the silence continued until they reached the castle. Arthur knew he had to say something before everyone dispersed for the night so he decided to create a plan of sorts. Arthur was wise enough to know that pursuing Merlin further would be pointless, seeing as how the Great Dragon would have probably taken him past Camelot's borders by now so his plan, was mostly about how to move forward after finding magic so close to Camelot's core.

"As you all know, Merlin was more than a manservant, he was a friend to most of us. Tonight I may have caused more harm than good by acting first and asking for an explanation later. This doesn't change the fact that Merlin broke the law and he must pay the price. That being said-"

"Excuse me princess," Gwaine interrupted, "but Merlin is my friend and I'll be damned if I let myself serve someone who believes Merlin must be killed. So if you don't mind, I will be taking a leave of absence until you, Arthur, come to your right mind. Can't you see that if Merlin was an evil sorcerer, or Warlock I guess, you would be dead already? Plus, the dragon even said that Merlin was our ally, and I don't know what that druid meant with the whole Emrys, destiny crap, but I am hell bent on finding out now. If the rest of you are fine with Merlin just being gone, no one looking for him because finding him means his execution, so be it. I will be going to find him where I will then continue to be his friend. Think about how big a secret Merlin was keeping; can you blame him for not wanting to tell us?"

Gwaine had said his piece, even if it was jumbled and the ideas were only semi-complete (probably due to the rum he'd been drinking on the way back), his point had been made. Gwaine was choosing Merlin over his King. Gwaine then walked away, leaving the rest of the knights standing with their jaws gaping.

Arthur didn't know what to say. He just let the knights go their separate ways for the night. He didn't know what to do. He wanted to scream at the world for stealing his best friend from him and he wanted to scream at the version of Merlin that had just come to light for revoking his friendship. Most of all, he just didn't want to deal with the world around him. The whispers asking how the King of Camelot could be so blind to magic being used right under his nose. The judgment passed on him for all his past decisions; the people wondering if they had been influenced by the sorcerer who was acting as the Kings manservant. Arthur slowly made his way up to his room, far from ready to deal with what the coming days would bring.

Merlin awoke in a massive cavern, lit solely by the sun coming in from the cave entrance as well as small openings placed intermittently along the ceiling. Merlin looked around for Kilgharrah and was surprised to find that he wasn't there. Merlin thought back to the happenings of the past night and was hit with a wave of gloom. The warlock just couldn't understand why Arthur reacted in that way. Or maybe, he did, and he just didn't want to believe it. They were friends, and Arthur sold him out without asking for any explanation. As heart broken as Merlin was by the King's actions, he couldn't just abandon Camelot. His destiny was to protect Arthur and the future he would bring, and to do that he had to be near Camelot.

"I guess it's time to go undercover" Merlin mused

"No Merlin," Kilgharrah said, appearing at the cave entrance, "this is part of Arthur's destiny. He must learn to accept our people and now is the time he must do so. He will learn acceptance without your persuasion towards the right choice, or he will fall. It is up to him now."


	4. Chapter 4

**An Arthur filled chapter, hope y'all don't mind.**

**-Amelia**

* * *

When Arthur awoke the next morning, it took him a moment to recall why it wasn't Merlin standing over him. Slowly, the events of the past night came back to him and he was hit with a wave of emotions, the most prominent being shame. Merlin's replacement had said his name, Clarence, Clark maybe, either way it didn't matter since after introducing himself, he worked respectfully in silence. The respect that he was receiving felt undeserved though. It left Arthur wondering who would actually speak his mind around him, now that Merlin was gone. Arthur dismissed his new manservant and started to think through everything that both Gwaine and the Great Dragon had said.

Arthur knew that he wouldn't be able to do anything, good or bad, about the Merlin situation, without further information. Going solely off the word of a dragon and a druid who made as much sense as someone on mushrooms, Arthur was as dumbfounded as one could get so after a short breakfast, Arthur decided to go see what Gaius knew or Merlin's treason.

"Sire!" Gaius said with surprise, "to what do I deserve this pleasure?"

While Gaius had always been nothing but kind and supportive of Arthur, something about his tone that day told Arthur that Gaius was disappointed in him, and how he had handled finding out Merlin's secret.

"I came to find out more about Merlin." Arthur replied curtly.

With that Gaius got quiet, his long held composure broken with that one question.

"He trusted you Arthur, and you chased him away like a criminal. He was your friend, and now you come to me, imploring for me to tell you his secrets, to destroy the false pretense of his innocence that he held so dear, only because he wishes that pretense to be true. He longs for the days when he was ignorant of who he is, who he is destined to become, and the cards that fate has thrown him. I will speak to you, but only in the briefest of explanations. These are Merlin's secrets, and only he can tell you how deep they run or why he worked so hard to keep you ignorant of his magic." Bitterly, Gaius added, "So go ahead, ask away."

With that, Arthur's long list of questions was asked, the answers leaving Arthur's head spinning and his conscience with a growing guilt.

"Wait, so you are telling me, that the only reason that sorcerer killed my father, was because Morgana had put some sort of magic pendant on him?"

"That is correct"

"And you're also telling me that the old man who has been popping in and out of my life, only in times of craziness, was actually MERLIN?"

"That is also true"

Come to think of it, Arthur had never seen the crazy old man and Merlin at the same time, and they both carried the bad habit of calling him a prat, but really?

…

"Gaius, why can't you tell me when Merlin started practicing magic."

"He is a warlock, he naturally had magic that he was then able to use."

"That still doesn't answer my question of when," Arthur said indignantly, this back and forth starting to seriously aggravate him.

Arthur still didn't get the difference between the two, warlock vs. sorcerer; Gaius was being purposely vague on the dissimilarities.

…

"How often did he use magic on me?"

"Quite often"

"To do what?"

"Mostly, to protect you"

So that was it; Merlin stayed in Camelot, no matter how dangerous it became for him to be there, to protect Arthur. While Arthur's time with Gaius had offered little explanation to the why's and how's of Merlin having magic, much light was shed upon what Merlin used his magic for. Gaius had told him of many situations of discord that Merlin had smoothed over, or trying times during which Merlin had saved Arthur's life. With a new sense of appreciation for everything that his manservant had done for him, Arthur realized that he needed to fix this mess he created, but how? He was the King of Camelot, he couldn't just run off into the woods searching for a mere servant, people would wonder where his head had gone. As guilty as he felt about chasing Merlin away, his life wasn't worth leaving Camelot unprotected. Even after everything he had been told, Arthur was still ignorant of Merlin's true worth.

* * *

"Camelot is finally unprotected! With Emrys gone, Arthur is weak. Now is our time to strike. Gather the all those with magic who will support us, and prepare to bring down Camelot!"

The man's speech rang throughout the hollow, all of his followers ecstatic at the news of Emrys' departure.


	5. Chapter 5

**As I'm sure everyone has heard, we are in our final series of Merlin. I'm not only incredibly anxious to see how the show will end now, but beyond depressed. This chapter was very hard for me to write, knowing that we have about 5 episodes left, but I sat down and made myself do it. If everyone stopped imagining what could happen to Merlin, just because the series finally completed its arc, there would be no more Merlin fanfiction and as sad as the series end makes me, the thought of no more of some of my favorite fanfiction makes me feel worse. So here it is, Chapter 5. **

**Oh, and one more thing; sorry that this chapter is so short, but through it I was able to figure out how to complete the arc of the story, while before I was just writing and solving the obstacles that I had written for myself (does that make any sense?).**

**-Amelia**

* * *

Merlin hated waiting. He hated how it left him with nothing to do and he hated how he was waiting for the clot pole of a king to be in a situation that only magic could solve. Merlin new it wouldn't take long; it seemed as if every week there was a new disaster that Merlin had to fix, but still by the third day of him waiting around in the cave, he was sure he was going to die of boredom unless he went out and did something. He finally settled on just exploring the forest around, but unsure of whose realm he was in, he had to be very cautious.

He meandered through the woods until he found a river. I flowed with a will and strength that Merlin found quite peculiar. The river seemed to flow not only because of the way the landscape was formed, with the earths center force propelling the water forward, but instead with a necessity, as if the water was being urged forward, but the only real force making it move was the waters own determination to flow.

Merlin spent many of his days waiting by the riverside; he watched as it fueled the life surrounding it. He watched as animals small as a wood mouse came to the waters edge, simply to eat the plants that the river supported, while other larger game came and gently lapped at the water. Merlin's time by the river's edge was relatively unperturbed until one day; his calm was disrupted by the sounds of someone gallivanting around in the surrounding woods. Merlin quickly used a spell that would conceal his and moved off into the shadows of the trees. Merlin waited until the man came out of the depths of the forest and went down to the riverside, appearing to be filling his canteen. As the stranger turned to go, Merlin was astounded to realize that he recognized the man.

"Gwaine!" Merlin called out, letting the energy he had been using to uphold his concealment spell to drop.

Gwaine practically cried out from shock, as he watched a figure appear out of the shadows, only to have his worries slightly abated by the fact that the figure was indeed Merlin, the very man he had been looking for. Gwaine rushed up to Merlin and pulled him into a deep embrace.

"I've missed ya, mate," Gwaine said with obvious relief at having found the young warlock.

"I didn't think anyone would come after me, let alone find me." Merlin replied.

"As much as I came to find ya because I couldn't work with Arthur while he thought you were evil," Gwaine continued cautiously, fearing inflicting any more pain onto his friend, "On my way here, I'm afraid I procured some information of plans against Camelot."

Gwaine acquired a new urgency when he spoke of the information he procured that peaked Merlin's interest.

"Oh?"

"Yes, well, it appears that, now I could be wrong about this, just warning I don't have all the details, and this may sound crazy but I think you should know…"

"For all that is holy just spit it out Gwaine!"

"I was somewhere between Camelot and these blasted mountains that you reside in, then I stumbled across a small group filled to the brim with a myriad of different people. I found it a bit odd, then I saw one of them do magic! While I at first thought they were druids, I saw none of the usual ink neither upon their skin nor around their camp. I decided to hide away, but close enough that I could still get a sense of what was going on around camp, and I found out that Camelot is in grave danger!"

"Finally something interesting!" cried Merlin, leaving Gwaine a little taken aback by Merlin's lack of urgency.

From there, Gwaine recounted everything that he had overheard or had been able to conclude from what he had heard.

After Gwaine's story had concluded, Merlin spoke quietly, but with confidence, as if the threat faced was just a run of the mill happening.

"To conclude, Arthur is facing the threat of anywhere from 15 to 60 sorcerers with a range in talents and power levels and he has no idea that they are coming to lay siege on the city within the next week. And here Gwaine, is the kicker; we're going to sit and wait while this happens."

Merlin found the whole thing, quite funny. He knew he shouldn't, and that his concern for Arthur really should be greater, but all he wanted to do was laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. A man who has been taught his whole life to hate sorcery, only to have those teachings enforced by years of relentless magical attacks and even his closest friend's betrayal, to need it so desperately, and the only way for him to get help is by asking the one person that he probably couldn't even find, nor know that he needed to.

* * *

**Please continue to follow/favorite and _especially _review! The responses I have gotten so far have been incredible and have given me the drive to keep writing. Thank you guys**!


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